Village Idiot

Thiago to Bayern.

Aren't they asking 180m for him? Utter madness. Rather use the money to get two more proven players.

He's not.

Also there's talk that PSG wants to throw Di María in to sweeten the deal and free up wages. I despise him

Dybala/Dembelé are the names thrown around at the moment. Dybala looks the better player to me, but Dembelé would probably more useful as a complement to Suárez/Messi.

They might've just been forced to sell a top 5 player in the World. Unless they buy Cristiano they're not improving their attack, with that said, Barcelona has looked so horrible defensively for a few years now that maybe they can do something about that. We're signing some Colombian CB from Palmeiras this January. Yerry Mina, no idea if he's any good. Umtiti I have a lots of hopes for. Him and Piqué are a good partnership, we lack depth though.

It's Spanish law. Over here an employee can always break his contract and leave his employment, and this too applies to footballers (or any sportsmen, I seem to recall the rule was actually made following a basketball transfer). Release clauses are a band-aid so players are forced to pay a penalty for breaking the contract. And yeah, it hurts small clubs the most, since they have less bargaining power and any player that breaks out can then get scooped up by a relatively low price by bigger clubs.

Besides the fact they obviously want to help us and force PSG to bargain with us directly (although La Liga's president is a self-admitted and vocal Real Madrid fan), Spanish clubs have been making noises about how discriminatory the mandatory release clause system is vs. other European clubs, and the Neymar case is seen as a way to push the issue.

With Iniesta on the wane, we need somebody like Coutinho as the most attacking-minded midfielder. The plan is to sign both a midfielder and a left-sided forward with the Neymar money.

I just don't trust our board with any money to be frank. Our transfer record speaks for itself. That said, if that money buys us Coutinho+a good left sided forward, I'll be happy.

Neymar's transfer fee is about €1500 for every Barça member. I want my cut!

That was filthy. Maybe they won't be taking so much risks in a real game, but I'll add Napoli to the teams I should be watching this year.

Rafinha is being hawked around and he wants to leave to boost any chances he might have to go to the WC. We're asking €30m-€40m but knowing us, we'll be lucky to get half that. He's a more than good #10 if he keeps fit. Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

He signed a new contract last summer, but it seems that the new release clause was undisclosed. So I really don't know about the price... half a Morata? A bit less?

Also, Depor are going all in trying to get him back. Promised captaincy and all. But you can easily outbid them, I guess. Or could.

Lots of work-rate, makes himself a nuisance all game long and covers a lot of ground upfront. Good hold-up play, although he isn't the strongest. Good pace, nothing great technically but not a slumbering oaf. I mean, he has lots of good attributes so I'd be surprised if he were not an useful player to you, but I'm skeptical of his scoring record outside that season at Depor. I have also a natural mistrust of players' in their late 20s-30s that sign for smaller clubs after failing at a large one. But that has nothing to do with him in particular.

As for Lucas Pérez, think poor man's Kevin Gameiro. Guy always has showed a lot of heart whenever I've seen him play, that's for sure.

It's really only the NFL that's like that. The other major sports have guaranteed contracts. Here's an extreme example of this going bad, courtesy of the New York Mets: Every July 1 he cashes another check. Is it true the talk I heard while I lived in NY that the Mets took that awful deal because the owner had invested all his money on Madoff's scheme?

Cronaldo was today at the court for his tax fraud trial. He has until next week to pay what's owed+interest+fines, etc... and thus reduce the chances of actually going to jail. He's been bullish about not admitting the fraud, but everybody assumes he'll pay up like Messi did.

Lee Ryderó Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk Elías Caballero.

DefensaCentral are barely a cut above a fan site. Ignore it.

I love him, but only because he's my c*** and he's also brilliant. But come on, he's an absolute tosser. From the handball in the world cup, to the several racist stuff, the bitings... Dude has a problem Also, I really didn't want to make a list of 11 Real Madrid players, so I tried to make a list with my Barça shirt taken off

If for De Jong you mean Nigel, I think you'll find that hatred for him isn't a Newcastle phenomenon. He nearly made my list.

more likely in the middle. Yeah. Me-RI-no

Oh, hateful XI. Gotta do that one for sure. I'll try to put aside my natural hatred for Real Madrid players. Paco Buyo Alves Pepe John Terry Ashley Cole Van Bommel Dennis Wise El Hadji Diouf Ronaldo Balotelli Suárez Shitloads of forwards I had to leave out though. Diego Costa (love him, weirdly), Neymar, Drogba, Robben, etc... I even had to put Diouf on midfield, because I really had to have Diouf in this. EDIT: Took out Gary Medel for Van Bommel. Because I actually love Medel, for all his underhanded cuntishness and all.